Kettlebells have become a very popular training style in the past 5-10years, in the USA. The Kettlebells, unlike many other popular fads, are here to stay. Besides being one of the most effective ways of training, whether to lose weight or for athletic performance, they can also be used for people with bad knees who have trouble squatting, lunging or pretty much doing any exercise for their lower body. If you have bad knees and are in too much pain to do lower body exercises, it is very hard to accomplish your fitness goals. The article written by Dr. Ben Fung goes into more detail anatomically on how the kettlebells can help people with knee pain, specifically. I will elaborate and share some more examples in the upcoming article on effective kettlebell exercises for people with knee pain and looking to lose weight. click the picture to read his article “Kettlebells for knee pain”.

Training Aspects’ personal trainers and sports performance coaches want you to accomplish your goals. You, as the personal training client, are a reflection of our personal training and group training methods! We are here to help you accomplish all of your personal training goals! Our main training focus are people looking to increase performance, lose weight , lose body fat and increase lean muscle. Whether you live in Cherry Hill, Haddonfield,Marlton, or any of the other surrounding areas we are here to help you Move, Look and feel as you’ve always desired…

Last week I mentioned that an individual’s advancement in the progressions depends on his or her specific goals and capacity to complete them. The next two phases, maximum strength and power, consist of advanced movements and total body awareness. No matter what sport you compete in, or goal set. The next two stages are essential. In the same respect, many of the exercises from these phases are thrown about the gym with no regard to the risk of injury.

Phase 3: Maximum Strength. This refers to the highest force produced within the muscles to create a maximum contraction. More simply stated, it’s the most amount of weight that can be lifted in a given exercise. An effect of maximum strength training is a synchronization of muscle fiber firing during a contraction. To give you a picture, lets dive into the muscle. Strings of muscle fibers run along the inside of the muscle and act as small rubber bands. If more of these muscle fibers pull at once, the muscle contraction as a whole will be stronger. Another effect of maximum strength training is an increase in contractile force. Muscles must adapt to the load placed upon them. Consistently lifting heavy weights will enable the muscle fibers to contract with more force. One misconception about strengthening is that you must push until fatigue for the best result. When an individual pushes to exhaustion they have strayed away from the goal in mind, PURE STRENGTH. One hundred pushups is an example of muscle endurance and will allow you to make that movement repeatedly. If you are strengthening, the aim is to bench press as much weight as possible only once. These are different modes of exercise and challenge different energy systems. Therefore, one does not equal the other.

“Because strength is a crucial athletic ability, it always has to be trained with the other abilities.”(periodization training for sports) This phase is a main focus during pre-season in athletics and can last for 3 to 9 weeks. During the competitive season strength training is woven into the week to assure that the athletes will lose as little strength as possible. Exercises are high intensity and low volume with rest intervals between 2 and 5 minutes for the muscles to fully recover between sets. The movements are slow and controlled to create a large amount of tension in the fibers. Eccentric and tempo training can be utilized to increase the contractile force in the muscle fibers. Pay special attention to range of motion and technique due to the elevated risk of injury. Make sure you are breathing properly so there is no loss in power.

Phase 4: Power. Work divided by time. How quickly can you synchronize your muscles to lift large amounts of weight? This is why body awareness is important from the day we start. Exercises such as the power clean, clean and jerk, and power snatch require more than just pure strength, they require extreme coordination. The advanced movements performed in the barbell power clean, for example, replicate multiple actions from other exercises. It includes the deadlift, shrug, calf raise, high pull, and front squat to be completed consecutively in an explosive motion. Easy? Olympic weightlifters do this exercise lifting hundreds of pounds! The muscles, again, need to be perfectly synchronized and must know the appropriate time to contract and relax.

This is usually the last phase before transferring to sport specific plyometrics, sprints, agility, hand-eye coordination, etc. The heavy weights that you are lifting very quickly with a jumping motion (power clean), is reduced to weights slightly more than your body weight. Now we have the ability to move quicker with more power and strength to be utilized in competition. There is still plenty of training to be done, but our progression of resistance has elevated our physical potential to be the absolute best we can possibly be.

Training Aspects’ personal trainers and sports performance coaches want you to accomplish your goals. You, as the personal training client, are a reflection of our personal training and group training methods! We are here to help you accomplish all of your personal training goals! Our main training focus are people looking to increase performance, lose weight , lose body fat and increase lean muscle. Whether you live in Cherry Hill, Haddonfield,Marlton, or any of the other surrounding areas we are here to help you Move, Look and feel as you’ve always desired…

Typically, the trainer breaks down a resistance training program for athletes into phases, also known as progressions. The progression that the athlete advances to depends on your specific goals and capacity to achieve them. Of course, there are many other factors that are considered, but the results achieved through resistive exercises are due to the regiment put in place by good trainers. This may also be utilized by healthy, active individuals looking to advance their workout.

Phase 1: Anatomical Adaption. Do you remember that feeling the first few times you ever lifted weights in the gym? You felt stronger and probably thought you looked better in the mirror. It’s okay, we all did it. This is due to the motor unit activation and muscle recruitment made within the body. In other words, your nervous system woke up due to the new stresses placed upon it and told your muscles, “Hey! We need you!” Unfortunately, your body shape did not change and your muscles had not grown yet, but strength was definitely gained.

This phase usually lasts about 2 weeks, give or take, depending on the individual. Concentrate on controlled movements and feeling the exercises “within the muscles”. Do not worry about the amount of weight being lifted. It is important to know where your limbs are in accordance to your body as well. Even though it may seem you are making progress, the correct neuromuscular connections need to be made. Improper technique can lead to underdeveloped movements, and in turn cause injury in the long term. Some anatomical adaption exercises include machine bench press, lat pull-down, leg press, and leg curl.

Phase 2: Hypertrophy. This phase is most commonly seen in the gym even though the name may be unfamiliar. If your goal is to be “sculpted”, then this is where you keep your training. This is not the main function of this stage for athletes though. In relation to sports, hypertrophy refers to the growth of muscle fibers to build the capacity for later phases. A base is established to prime the muscles to move into maximum strength, muscle endurance, and/or maximum power. This is why moderate loads are lifted until exhaustion and drop sets, super sets, and compound sets are utilized.

If you are moving forward in your progression, the hypertrophy phase can last 1 to 6 weeks depending on an individuals goals and experience. It is usually tied in with

Hypertrophy: increase muscle size. Hyperplasia: increase number of muscle cells (Little evidence to support the concept of hyperplasia

anatomical adaption, but repetitions are lowered and resistance is increased. Again, technique is very important and must receive special attention. Advanced exercises will soon increase in intensity, which refers to the percentage of your one repetition maximum. The pace of a single session does not replicate competition speeds at this point and rest periods are 60 to 90 seconds for muscle recovery.

Next week will cover the maximum strength and power phases. Questions? Contact me!

Training Aspects’ personal trainers and sports performance coaches want you to accomplish your goals. You, as the personal training client, are a reflection of our personal training and group training methods! We are here to help you accomplish all of your personal training goals! Our main training focus are people looking to increase performance, lose weight , lose body fat and increase lean muscle. Whether you live in Cherry Hill, Haddonfield,Marlton, or any of the other surrounding areas we are here to help you Move, Look and feel as you’ve always desired…

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We can help you increase your performance on and off the field/ice. If you are currently in season, we can help you stay fresh!If you’re in off season mode let us help you prepare for the season, so you can take it to the next level!

Training Aspects’ personal trainers and sports performance coaches want you to accomplish your goals. You, as the personal training client, are a reflection of our personal training and group training methods! We are here to help you accomplish all of your personal training goals! Our main training focus are people looking to increase performance, lose weight , lose body fat and increase lean muscle. Whether you live in Cherry Hill, Haddonfield,Marlton, or any of the other surrounding areas we are here to help you Move, Look and feel as you’ve always desired…

There are various group fitness classes and personal training programs available out there. With all the different choices how can a person know if what they are doing is effective? Many follow the protocol “no pain no gain”, there is some validity there. Others believe if they are sweating they must be having a great workout, not necessarily true. Here are four principles which should always be in mind

The Principle of Overload: Body must be challenged!

The principle of overload states that a greater than normal stress or load on the body is required for training adaptation to take place. What this means is that in order to improve your fitness, strength or endurance, you need to increase the workload accordingly. A muscle must be under unusual stress to become stronger. What does this mean to you? If you go into the gym, do the same weight and workout every week; Chest and Triceps Monday, Cardio Tuesday, a plateau is coming your way!

The Principle of Progression: Advancing through overload without injury or setback.

The principle of progression implies that there is an optimal level of overload that should be achieved, and an optimal time frame for this overload to occur. A gradual and systematic increase of the workload over a period of time will result in improvements in fitness without risk of injury. Referring back to the principle of overload, though it is important to stress the muscle, it is important to understand your limitations so that you can “progressively” improve. Meaning: Whatever your goal is you have to crawl before you can run.

The Principle of Adaptation

Adaptation refers to the body’s ability to adjust to increase or decreased physical demands. It is also one way we learn to coordinate muscle movement and develop sports-specific skills. Repeatedly practicing a skill or activity makes it second-nature and easier to perform. Adaptation explains why initially you are often sore after starting a new training routine, but after doing the same program for a few weeks you have little, if any, muscle soreness. Meaning: the human body is meant for survival, the body will adapt and it will get easier,

The Principle of Specificity

The Principle of Specificity indicates that, to become better at a particular exercise or skill, you must perform that exercise or skill. A person looking to lose weight should focus on decreasing body fat, a person looking to increase muscle tone should focus on muscle toning. While it’s helpful to have a good base in fitness, to accomplish your goal you must focus on your goal.

The 4 principles always collide. Principle of overload must be combined with progression. The Principle of adaption must be monitored, if your body has adapted then you are no longer challenging your body which means the principle of overload is no longer being stressed. Principle of specificity keeps you focused. Always refer back and make sure the program you are beginning or have been following has all 4 principles in mind weekly.

Training Aspects’ personal trainers and sports performance coaches want you to accomplish your goals. You, as the personal training client, are a reflection of our personal training and group training methods! We are here to help you accomplish all of your personal training goals! Our main training focus are people looking to increase performance, lose weight , lose body fat and increase lean muscle. Whether you live in Cherry Hill, Haddonfield,Marlton, or any of the other surrounding areas we are here to help you Move, Look and feel as you’ve always desired…